1998/9 Baja, Mexico / California Trip

We woke up early this morning around 5:00. The sun came up around 6:00 and we would be on our way at 6:30. We drove aroundone more time to La Purisma and San Isidro just to remember the towns as it was dark when we got in last night. A mission was built in La Purisima in 1730 but was abandoned in 1822. We then took a dirt road south that would take us thru valleys and hills and eventually reach San Miquel and San Jose de Comondu. The scenery was nice with the rolling hills and interesting rock formations in the desert. We would not see anybody on these roads for two hours until we reached the small communities. We did come to a cemetery in the middle of nowhere without a house insight. It must have been for all four communities because there were many flower on the graves but nothing but deserted land with also volcanic rock as far as you could see. We continued to drive until we reached the small villages around 8:30. Once we came into these villages it was like another oasis as the desert suddenly changed to a dense forest of palm trees. There were a variety of other tropical trees in the villages which were farming communities. There were large areas of land just used for crops in this area surrounded by desert. It is a very simple life but one that requires a lot of hard work. There are only 600 people who leave in these two villages. There was also a Mission in San Jose that was built in 1737 and is still standing on the main street.

We left the two little towns and would take more dirt road to a very popular Mission at San Javier. As we left the town there was a man riding a donkey along the main street of San Jose de Comondu. I took a picture of him and then he rode off on a little side trail to escape from us. I also stopped on the way out of town to pick up a couple small orange/tangerines that had fallen off a tree. I gave one to Cindy who tried it and said see had never tasted anything so bitter. We came to the conclusion that it was a combination orange/lemon. This road to San Javier would be a thirty mile trip over very nice scenery. The road was also rough, narrow, bumpy and I would not recommend a car take this route. On our way there we would pass roads that went to ranches and also saw several that appeared to be abandoned. We stopped at one of these abandoned ranches and Jacob and I got out to look around. There were four buildings still standing but nobody had been here for quite a while. As we walked thru them there were remains of a desk, with pots and pans, an old cassette player, hope chest and also a stuffed animal. It looked like what used to be a nice home had been deserted. There was also a bed with a picture of a two kids hanging on the wall. There was a lot of straw on the bed implying nobody had been here for quite a while. There was also horse manure inside some of the rooms just in case there was any doubt if someone may still be living there. We took some pictures, wondered what may have happened and then got back in the truck and continued on driving. We would continue to go up and down gravel roads thru hills and mountains until around 11:00

Just before getting into the town of San Javier you look down into a forested valley and you could also see a pool of water. We drove down into the valley and the Mission is the main building in town. It appeared that they were doing some repair to the mission both outside and inside. This was the most impressive mission we saw on the trip. It was founded in 1699 but not completed until 1758. There were also many small houses here as this is a farming community. The water comes from an underground spring that has made this another oasis area. The water that we had seen had also been dammed up. We went back to where the dam was and parked in the old riverbed near the cement wall for the dam. We reached the river and let the kids play for a little while. There was a family gathered for a picnic on the other side of the water. We left here and took the Loreto junction. This would take us higher in elevation as we would now go thru a mountain range. On our way back we stopped at Las Parras which had a small church on one side and a house on the other side that had a locked gate and many acres of land he was farming crops. There was a taxi that came up while we were resting and were invited into the gate. They walked down near the water where the crops and trees were growing.

We reached Loreto at about 12:00. It had been a warm day in the high 70's with clear sky. We first went to get some gas as we were getting low. While I was filling up the tank Jacob went over to some kids who were playing basketball and they let him shoot baskets until Shawna and Cindy were in the bathroom. Neither kid could verbally communicate but they used hand motions to share the basketball for about five minutes. We next walked around town for a little while just to get out of the truck. We also had to eat lunch and stopped at a small out-door restaurant that only served fish tacos and ceviche. The ceviche is served in a tall glass. At first I thought it was a drink. It's really a mixture of chopped-up raw scallops and maybe some white fish 'cooked' in lime juice with some chopped up tomatoes, garlic and onion. It's eaten with a long spoon and served with tortilla chips. Next we found the shop we had stopped at last time and bought another blanket. This time Cindy bargained the shopkeeper down to $10. We walked down to the malecon, the wide-sidewalk near the beach, before leaving town.

We drove north past the Bahai Concepcion. All along this bay you could see great views of the Sea of Cortez and every few miles there would be a campground down near the ocean crowded with rigs of all shapes and sizes. This is suppose to be the busiest camping area on the whole peninsula. We drove through Mulege and stopped at Santa Rosalia around 3:30. We tried to find film, with no luck. All the shopkeepers directed us to another shop that might sell it, some of which were closed. Several stores were closed. We finally decided to go north to San Ignacio to spend the night.

Around 5 pm we stopped at the La Pinta Hotel on the outskirts of San Ignacio. This hotel is part of a chain of hotels through out Baja. It looked rather plain on the outside, but was quite nice with an inner courtyard decorated for the holidays. There rooms were $85 a night and they seemed to cater to North Americans. We decided to try a cheaper hotel in town. We thought we'd try the La Pasada Motel. We had a terrible time finding it, but they still had a few rooms left. For $25 we got a quiet room with one queen and one twin bed and a bathroom with shower and hot and cold water. We walked back into town about half a mile. On our way some American tourist asked us for directions to the motel we had found. We told him there might still be a room left. We finally found a store that sold film. We watched kids playing soccer in the plaza near an outdoor nativity scene. Several businesses and food vendors were still open. Although Ignacio is smaller than Santa Rosalia it seemed to be much more alive on a Sunday evening. We ate dinner again at Restaurante Bar Rene. The kids ordered Mexican food and we ordered American (sautéed shrimp with a baked potato) for a change. The same guy who stopped us for directions earlier sat a table next to us. He said he couldn't find a room at the La Pasada and had to go back to the La Pinto. Once he started talking he wouldn't shut up. Warning--beware of English speaking tourists traveling alone. We walked back to our motel and relaxed for an hour. Cindy and I walked back to the plaza around 9 pm. The town was quite noisy still. There was a rowdy crowd in the bar/night club next to Rene's. We weren't sure if this was a private party or what. Everyone seemed to know each other. The music was blaring. Dale went up to the bar and bought two beers. Later someone passed around a pitcher of beer and offered it to anyone who would take it. We left after finishing our beer and went back to the motel for the night.